Painting with Value
ACRYLIC PAINT
Different from water colours as designed to use straight from the tube [thicker - think custard consistency]
Brushes are usually stronger [often square]
Longer drying time
To darken a colour - use the opposite on the colour wheel [or dark blue]
There are many ways to apply Acrylic paint from thin washes to thick impasto...
ACTIVITY: watch the paint techniques video below and copy them into your visual diary [you can do as spheres or you may apply random techniques over your page]
ACTIVITY: Claude Monet red Mullets
You will use Claude Monet's "Red mullets 1869" as the base to experiment with paint application and techniques. The class will be guided through the paint application video above and we will apply these to our mullets
PREPARE YOUR SURFACE WITH A COAT OF GESSO AND A COLOUR WASH BASE [LIGHT BLUEGREY]. DRY
Process
Warm red wash over the fish. Yellow wash in all other areas [Cool red if you don't have warm, they will just be "pinker"]
mix warm red and cool blue to make dark violet and use a DRY BRUSH technique to add in all shadow areas {including fish] REFER TO THE B&W IMAGE for mid to dark values. Work in the direction of the curves on the fish and shadows]
use BLEND to add in table top [yellow+violet] bottom right & top left and violet top right.
FABRIC - [white+little yellow+little violet]
look at the B&W image and follow the brushstroke direction to add light layers of colour to the cloth. Paint OVER the violet shadow [leave a small violet edge around the outside]. Build up layers in the lighter value areas and add more white to these areas.
DRY BRUSH shadows back in when fabric is dry and do the highlights as well. if needed add stronger lines in the dark creased areas.
FISH [red, yellow, white, violet],
Ignore all the texture and detail of the fish, start with the base colour and work up to the lighter details
Fish eyes - if you have added darker shadows, you just need to do a loose yellow circle and highlight
paint fish in a stronger red [refer to colour image]
BLEND in areas of yellow on tail and heads. BLEND violet to add in shadow on bottom right of each fish and around gills/eyes
when dry begin to use layers of BROKEN COLOUR in white & orange to represent the texture and details of the scales [refer to colour image]
when dry add in final details of shadows [dry brush] fins and tail details.
refine any shadows, highlight and details across the work
student examples of progress
